Concept: Standard and Nonstandard Academic Periods

Workday enables you to define date ranges for nonstandard periods in your academic calendar. To configure nonstandard academic periods when creating an academic calendar, you can create or select a period type and leave the

Standard Period

check box option clear.

You can add nonstandard periods to an academic calendar at any time, even if there are already academic years using that calendar. You can create nonstandard periods to represent any period of time in an academic year to suit your institution's needs.

You can use the

Add Nonstandard Academic Periods to Calendar

task to add a new nonstandard period to an academic calendar. Example: Add a nonstandard period to the Semester Academic Calendar at Alma Mater University. Workday adds the new nonstandard period to all academic years using that calendar policy. You must define academic period dates for each nonstandard period for each academic year. No nonstandard period dates can be blank.

Workday determines financial aid by the dates you configure for standard academic periods. When you configure nonstandard periods, ensure that students receive financial aid if they register for classes during nonstandard periods.

You can configure academic period records to recognize nonstandard academic period types. This configuration enables you to process coursework and student statistics for nonstandard academic periods. It also enables you to display them separately on students' academic history and transcripts, giving you more flexibility to meet your institutional needs.

Standalone nonstandard periods have no impact on these items that continue to be driven by the standard start and end dates of the standard academic periods:

Workday enables you to optionally configure Nonstandard Period Types on Typical Attendance Patterns. You can configure standalone, nonstandard periods on your typical attendance pattern rule set, and then create a new calendar policy with that new typical attendance pattern.

By configuring nonstandard period types, you can select how registrations roll up to nonstandard Academic Period types. Registration roll up options are by 1 of these options:

Nominal Start
, which enables registrations with a start date that fall within the nonstandard period dates to roll up into the nonstandard period.
Registration Period
, which enables the nonstandard academic period type to roll up into the registration period that you specify.

See Create Typical Attendance Patterns.

By default, Workday doesn’t display nonstandard academic periods on a student’s academic history or transcripts. Workday includes the coursework from a nonstandard period to the closest standard academic period by date, if you haven’t configured otherwise. Example: Workday includes a student's progress from a nonstandard Early Fall period in the standard Fall Semester academic period on their student record.

You have the option to configure your student's academic period records to display nonstandard periods separately from the closest standard academic periods, regardless of overlapping dates. Examples: You can create or edit a:

Typical Attendance Pattern and select the
Configure Nonstandard Period Types for Academic Period Records
check box. By doing so, you can define the academic period types you want to display on the academic profile for students.
Load Status Rule Set to define the full-time or part-time parameters for your nonstandard academic periods.
Class Standing Rule Set and select the nonstandard academic period types you want to include in the class standing calculations.

You can configure standard academic period spanning to allow:

Nonstandard periods to span across standard academic periods.
Course sections to be offered across standard periods. Example: A course starts in the Fall semester and ends in the Spring semester.

Once enabled, academic period spanning is institution-wide and irreversible. This option has wide impacts on financial aid and Student Financials, so discuss the decision thoroughly with stakeholders.

See Setup Considerations: Standard Academic Period Spanning.

You can configure the

Maintain Enrollment Access and Grading Policy

task for all students regardless of academic periods. See Set Up Enrollment Access and Grading Policies.

You can also limit the number of units that students can enroll in during an academic period. On the

Maintain Enrollment Unit Limit Policy

task, you can configure enrollment unit limits for both:

Standard academic periods, on the
Overall Period Overrides
tab.
Nonstandard academic periods, on the
Specific Period Overrides
tab. You can also select the
Include with Standard Limit
check box to include enrollment criteria for a nonstandard academic period that rolls up to a standard academic period.

See Set Up Enrollment Unit Limit Policies.

Workday evaluates all date controls on standard academic periods and only some date controls on nonstandard academic periods. See Reference: Date Controls.